WRITING WITH SPIRIT

Visionary poet Patricia Monaghan celebrates the mythic in the ordinary, the spiritual in the mundane, the sensuous in the scientific. An impassioned teacher and performer, she has won awards for creative nonfiction as well as poetry. Her highly crafted work remains accessible to ordinary readers interested in spirituality, peace, and environmental issues. Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at DePaul University, Patricia is also Founding Fellow of The Black Earth Institute, a think-tank for artists seeking to connect social justice, environment and spirituality.

Patricia is also one of the pioneers of the contemporary women's spirituality movement and the author of classic texts in that field. She is vice president of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology and a lecturer for the Women's Thealogical Institute. She also advises students in women's spirituality and mythology through The Union Institute and University. Her research in mythology focuses especially on the myths of Ireland; she holds Irish citizenship and returns to her ancestral homeland annually.

Patricia was raised in Alaska and lived there for many years. She earned her BA and MA in English from the University of Minnesota, her MFA in creative writing from the University of Alaska, and her PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies (science and literature) from the Union Institute in Cincinnati. In addition to her many published books, Patricia has published essays and articles in national and regional publications including The New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor . Her work has been featured in Best American Spiritual Writing and many other anthologies. She has been honored with a Pushcart Prize, the Paul Gruchow Nature Writing award, and the Friends of Literature award for poetry.

With her husband, Dr. Michael McDermott, Patricia is also an organic farmer and winemaker with an acre each of garden, orchard and vineyard in southwestern Wisconsin's Driftless Area. They are restoring seven acres of native prairie there and also enjoy harvesting native grapes, berries and herbs from the steep hillsides.